Elijah hedges



(No Model.)

E. HEDGES.

` HEAD REST PoR comms. No. 290,682. Patented Deo. 25, 1883.

N. PETERS Pmw-Liuwgnplm. wnfhingcm al;

PATENT EEICE.

ELIJAH HEDGES, OF INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA.

HEAD-REST FOR COFFINS.

'SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 290,682, dated December 25, 1883.

Application filed May 14, 1883.

To all whom it may concern,.-

Be it known that I, ELIJAH HEDGEs, a citizen of the United States, residing at Indianapolis, in the county of Marion and State of Indiana, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Head-Rests Attached to Cooling- Boards for the Use of Undertakers, which has liever been patented iu any country to my knowledge, of which the following is a speciflcation.

The object of my invention is to provide a simple and efficient means of adjusting the heads of dead bodies, to give them a natural appearance, upon the cooling-board, at the same time supporting the chin, and thus make easy what has always been a disagreeable and troublesome task to the undertaker. I accomplish this by the simple mechanism illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure l is a top view of the machine. Fig. 2 is a vertical section through its center, showing by dotted lines the position of the head upon the rest, the occipital portion fitting into a circular opening or depression on the top of the same, with the chin supported by the elastic strap J A more minute description of the invention is as follows: The frame-work of the head-rest may be made of wood or metal, about six inches square, as shown at O O, and firmly attached to the cooling-board M. On the top of the rest is a movable piece, N, circled out to fit the back part of the head, beneath the center of which is a cross-bar jointed to the arms c c at point K. The arms o c are separately jointed with the nuts B B, through which (No model.)

passes the right-and-left screw A, and turned by the hand-screw G. The mechanism is as follows: By turning thehand-screw Gthe rightand-left screw A causes the. nuts B B to approach each other, causing the movable plate N to rise by means of the arms c c. The same can be lowered by a reverse movement.

In Fig. 2 are shown at II, and in Fig. l at P I), two small hollow columns, made of wood or metal, attached to the back part of the rest in a perpendicular position. these columns is a small rod, I, secured by a Vithin each of y thumb-screw, L. The object of these columns y with movable rods working in them is to form an adjustable attachment for the elastic chinsupporter J, shown in Fig. 1.

Having thus shown anddescribedmy invention, I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent- ELIJ AH IIEDGES.

Vitnesses:

E. G. WHEELER, WM. BUssELL. 

